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Wednesday, July 5, 2017

The soverign state of New York?

Will the citizen's of New York decide to amend the state's constitution to give the state greater independence from the federal government? From the NYTimes:

Every 20 years, New Yorkers have the chance to vote whether they want to hold a constitutional convention to amend, tweak or otherwise improve the founding document of the state.

For the past half-century, voters have demurred. This year, however, academics, good-government groups and others believe the outcome of the ballot question in November may be different. And — perhaps no surprise — it has something to do with the current occupant of the White House.

“Trump’s election emphasizes how valuable it is for states to chart their own course,” said Peter J. Galie, author of “Ordered Liberty: A Constitutional History of New York” and a professor of political science at Canisius College in Buffalo. “We can put a right to clean air and water in our Constitution. If we want to add more labor protections, we can do it. That’s the beauty of federalism.”

What about New York City separating from the rest of the state?

John Bergener Jr., a retiree who lives outside Albany, would like to see the separation of New York City from the rest of the state. As chairman of Divide NYS Caucus, a political committee, he believes a constitutional convention is the best mechanism to achieve that.

Upstate areas, he said, have suffered economically from excessive business regulations and unfunded mandates. His vision — and he claims thousands of supporters — calls for two or three autonomous regions, each with its own regional governor and legislature. (The upstate region, north of the lower Hudson Valley, would be called New Amsterdam.) A statewide governor would be titular, with the same “powers as the queen of England.”